03 June 2010

Bottleneck

It was kind of funny really. In the morning rush hour, at 08:34 on a workday, on Hans Christian Andersen Boulevard (with 25,000 cyclists a day) a woman with a cargo bike [bottom right, pulling up her track pants] decided to stop suddenly on the bike lane and... clean out her cargo bike.

All the other Citizen Cyclists who had just been launched off the light on the other side of the intersection had to suddenly brake and merge and work their way past the woman, who calmly gathered up trash out of her cargo bay and walked over to the garbage can [hidden behind the man with the purple bag] to chuck it out.

Amazingly, given how high-octane, adrenalin-based the fantastically dangerous activity of cycling to work is, nobody 'came off their bikes' - or whatever it is people call it.But one cyclist out of the few dozen in this flock is already on her way up over the sidewalk, which of course means that all cyclists are outlaws corroding the societal fabric from within.

Any of our Danish readers care to translate "lack of 'situationsfornemmelse'" in the comments - as in the woman's lack of situationsfornemmelse?

Kilometres cycled by Copenhageners so far today

Copenhagenize.com is the blog of Copenhagenize Design Company. Online since 2007 and highlighting the cycling life in Copenhagen and around the world.

40 years ago Copenhagen was just as car-clogged as anywhere else but now 41% of the population arriving at work or education do so on bicycles, from all over the Metro area. 56% of Copenhageners themselves use bicycles each day. They all use over 1000 km of bicycle lanes in Greater Copenhagen for their journeys. Copenhagenizing is possible anywhere.